‘Star Wars’: A New Theory Reveals Luke Actually Wanted Rey to Find Him
Fans have let the Star Wars speculation run wild ever since Disney announced its intention to bring the franchise back to the big screen, shortly after purchasing it from creator George Lucas. As Star Wars: The Last Jedi secrets are still being kept close to the vest, we’re left to create our own ideas about what might happen. That is, until Disney gives us small details to help us piece things together.
A new image from Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia reveals that Luke Skywalker provided Lor San Tekka the map to his location. The mysterious old man, killed off in the early moments of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, alluded to his relationship with Leia Organa and referred to her as “royalty.” So the idea that he may also have known Luke … well, it’s not that far-fetched.
Luke wanted Rey to find him

It seems like too much of a coincidence that Luke would give a piece of the map to his location to Lor San Tekka, who resides on Jakku, without there being some obvious implication on Rey. Was the old man stationed on the planet to watch over her from afar, much like Obi-Wan Kenobi did with Luke back in his days on Tatooine? Maybe we’re grasping at straws, but The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has already confirmed that some twists are headed our way when the movie hits theaters.
Let’s assume, for a minute, that Luke did intend for Rey to end up with his map. Does that also mean that he was the one who left her on the planet as a girl? What does that mean in regards to her family, or lack thereof? And how does this change our current assumption that he wasn’t exactly thrilled to have been found?
The new information, which many may have guessed or even assumed, opens up plenty of theories. Let’s take a look at several other interesting fan theories about Star Wars that are currently floating around in the depths of the internet.
Rey Palpatine

Disney has purposely left Rey’s family as the elephant in the room. When she first meets BB-8 in The Force Awakens and asks him who he is, she responds, “Classified, really? Me too, big secret.” This was a fun way to nod to the fans that some big surprise was coming. Unfortunately, it wasn’t revealed by the end of the movie, leaving fans plenty of time to speculate.
What we know is that Rey was left as a little girl on the desert planet of Jakku. Whoever left her there almost certainly did it knowing she was extremely sensitive with the Force, and possibly, because they feared she may be dangerous in the wrong hands. So what if she is a direct descendant of Emperor Palpatine?
The theory goes that she is the grandchild — or if you want to get weird, a clone of — Darth Sidious, the evil master of Darth Vader. If you’re looking for evidence to prove the theory, there is little. But in the novelization of The Force Awakens, during the scene where Rey beats Kylo Ren in battle on Starkiller Base, a voice in her head tells her to kill him. Had the ground not split beneath her feet, she may have actually done it.
Rey definitely has a little bit of the dark side in her, so we won’t rule out this fan theory just yet.
Rey Kenobi

If you aren’t a fan of the idea that Rey is related to Palpatine, maybe you’ll like the theory that she is a direct descendant of Obi-Wan Kenobi? The only Jedi that we saw father children in the movies was Anakin Skywalker, and we all know how that whole mess worked for everyone. The Jedi were forbidden to form attachments and bound by their code. But that doesn’t mean that Obi-Wan didn’t bend the rules a time or two.
We know from Star Wars: The Clone Wars that he had grown particularly attached to Duchess Satine before Darth Maul murdered her. That was during the time near Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, so it’s likely that Kenobi hadn’t yet fathered any children. But we know he wasn’t opposed to falling in love.
Between the moment he hands baby Luke off to Aunt Beru on Tatooine until we see him as a gray-bearded old man, we know very little about what Obi-Wan was doing in the desert. It’s not far-fetched to suggest he may have found love in his isolation and maybe even fathered a child. With the rumored upcoming Kenobi solo film, that might be a storyline worth fleshing out.
As for the new trilogy, J.J. Abrams went out of his way to have the combination of the late Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor, the two actors that bring Kenobi to life, say, “Rey … these are your first steps” in her vision from The Force Awakens. If she ends up being a Kenobi, it’s not like they didn’t give us any hints.
Luke goes to the dark side

One of the questions that nobody seems to be asking about Luke is why, exactly, he felt like he needed to hide out on his Jedi island? We get that Kylo Ren has slaughtered his Jedi pupils, but Luke isn’t exactly a coward that runs from a fight. Why go hide? What is the purpose?
In the teaser trailer for The Last Jedi, fans were stunned to hear Luke’s voice say, “It’s time for the Jedi to end.” Could he possibly have gone to the dark side of the Force? The notion isn’t as crazy as it seems. Let’s start with a line from Yoda, all the way back in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: “Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you, it will.” Now remember that in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Luke wears all black, uses the Force choke in Jabba’s Palace, and beats Darth Vader by summoning his anger.
Maybe Luke didn’t bathe himself in the dark side of the Force, but Return of the Jedi painted a clear picture of someone who had started down the dark path. So when Luke goes to his Jedi island, is he attempting to keep himself from fully giving in to the dark side?
That’s tough to answer, especially since Skywalker has yet to say a single word in the new trilogy. But again, given the evidence, this doesn’t seem like a major twist without any merit to it.
Snoke is actually Darth Plagueis

Supreme Leader Snoke showed up in The Force Awakens as a 100-foot tall hologram — an emaciated and disfigured body sitting on a massive throne as he rules the First Order from an unknown location. Little is said about him, although Leia and Han seem to know exactly who he is. Like with Rey, we were left with more questions than answers regarding Snoke by the time the film ended.
So of course, fans were quick to come up with theories about who he may actually be. The first, and by far the most popular theory, is that Snoke is actually Darth Plagueis. For those unfamiliar with Darth Plagueis, he was the master of Darth Sidious — Palpatine — and was killed in his sleep by his pupil. There is even a scene in Revenge of the Sith where Palpatine arrogantly regales Anakin with a story about Plagueis and his ability to manipulate the Force to create life.
What if Plagueis had cheated death himself, fans thought? What if, scarred and disfigured from his defeat at the hands of Palpatine, he went into hiding until he was able to rise from the shadows and rebuild the remnants of Palpatine’s failed Empire? As far as theories go, this one really isn’t that bad, even if it’s almost certainly wrong.
Snoke is actually Darth Maul

Another major theory is that Snoke is Darth Maul, the awesome bad guy from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace that a young Obi-Wan cuts in half. Star Wars diehards will know that Maul was brought back in The Clone Wars, which is canon in the Star Wars universe. That means, yes, Maul did actually survive being cut in half, even if he didn’t reappear in another live-action movie after The Phantom Menace.
The theory around Maul and Snoke is that they sound the same, know the dark side of the Force, and have a reason to hold a grudge against Palpatine and the Empire. If you want a good breakdown of why it makes sense, there are plenty of YouTube videos on the topic.
Outside of Disney going as far as it can to assure the masses that Snoke is a new character, it appears that Maul’s storyline has been tied up anyway. In a Season 3 episode of Star Wars Rebels, Maul returns to battle with Kenobi one last time — and ends up losing his life.
For this theory, we’re giving fans an “A” for critical thinking and originality, but an “F” for realism. Snoke is definitely not Darth Maul.
Rey is the ‘Chosen One’

Fans have argued over time about how the phrase “the Chosen One” is applied in Star Wars lore. Originally, we were told that Jedi prophecies labeled Anakin Skywalker as the Chosen One, or the one who would bring balance to the Force. Later, in the aforementioned scene where Kenobi kills Maul in Rebels, it is Luke that is referred to as the Chosen One. So is it Anakin or Luke? Could it actually be Rey?
We could debate whether Anakin’s actions actually brought balance to the Force or not — after all, he did take the number of surviving Jedi (Yoda and Obi-Wan) down to match the number of Sith (Vader and Sidious). But that wouldn’t be the point. From the Jedi point of view, Anakin failed to be the Chosen One.
Luke, it would appear, failed as well. He brought down the Empire, but allowed all his Jedi academy students to be murdered and ran away to hide on a private island.
What if the big twist in The Last Jedi is that Rey is the next in the Skywalker bloodline, and the actual Chosen One? Or maybe it’s not until Rey arrives on Ahch-To that Luke is finally able to drive himself to bring balance to the Force? We aren’t really sure, because predicting how Disney will further the Star Wars story is practically impossible. But the idea that Rey is actually the Chosen One, not Anakin or Luke, isn’t a bad theory.